A part of being a business owner is working out how to differentiate your business and make it stand out from the crowd. Market competition can be tough particularly for start-ups and SMEs. You need to stay ahead and outgrow your competitors. While you may be satisfied with your current business status, growth still matters and being too complacent may cause future risks to your business. 

Here are some ways to help you differentiate and grow your business:

1. Keep your company under the radar. Great ideas, opportunities and strategies can be quite exciting but as you are creating these with your team, you may want to keep a low profile to avoid feeding valuable information to your competitors. 

2. Learn more about your competitors. Researching more about your competitors may give you valuable insights about their organisation and help identify some of their weaknesses. You can start by subscribing to their newsletters or following their social media accounts. Take note of their marketing approach and how they deal with their customers. Knowing and understanding your competitors will give you the edge when creating your own approach to set your business apart.

3. Study your competitors' website traffic and backlinks. Checking out your competitors' online presence can provide you insights about the keywords they are using and a rough idea of where they are getting most of their website traffic. You can use online free tools like ahrefs.com to find information about their top content, top referring content and top websites linking to their domain. You can also check the technology they are using for their website Content Management System, widgets and any affiliate relationships they have through builtwith.com. Moreover, to have an idea of how they are improving their website for conversions, you can check the previous changes they have made with their website by checking the old versions of their website at Wayback Machine. With all these tools, you can uncover your competitors' techniques on acquiring website traffic and use their weaknesses as your opportunities to generate more traffic for your website.

4. Focus on enhancing the customer experience. The customer's journey from start to finish plays an important role in the success of a business. You either get repeat and loyal customers or lose more sales because of unbridged gaps in your sales funnel. Understanding the needs and wants of your target market can help you personalise their experience when dealing with your company. Sometimes it is not just about the product they are looking for, but the feeling and experience they get each time they interact with your company. You do not only sell them products or services, you sell the experience.

5. Know what you are selling - your value proposition. How can you convince someone to buy something if even you do not know or understand it? To build a lasting relationship with your customers, you must know how to communicate your products and services to them, in a way that resonates with them.

In today's world, almost anything is possible. You can utilise advanced tools to level up your business and make it stand out in your industry. You can also ask assistance from a Chartered Accountant that specialises in business strategy such as Paul Martin Chartered Accountant Ltd, as we can help you differentiate your business and develop your business growth strategy . For more information, please call us on (09) 576 4166 or request an appointment online.